Cuomo, lawmakers plan panel to direct education reform

ALBANY—Senate Republican leader Dean Skelos said Tuesday that his conference and Governor Andrew Cuomo are close to a deal on creating an expert panel that would explore changes to teacher evaluations and other education reforms.

“I think we’re just about there with it, the Senate,” Skelos said in response to a question about the progress of negotiations over Cuomo’s education reform proposals after he met privately with the governor at the Capitol. “We had a long conference about it today, there’s a better understanding about it and now it’s really about the composition of the commission and what their charge will be in terms of finalizing education reform.”

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Skelos said he’s still negotiating with Cuomo on “the criteria of what they would review.

“They would come up with recommendations to the Legislature, and the question is, would we have to vote on it, or it would just be implemented, what they recommend?” he said.

Skelos said he didn’t know if the Assembly was on board with the proposal.

Assemblywoman Amy Paulin, a Democrat from Westchester, told Capital on Monday her conference would support creating a panel of educators who would hash out details of a new teacher evaluation system.

“We have to create a real evaluation tool that teachers and superintendents and administrators have respect for, and then the public is going to have respect for it,” she said. “And the only way to do it is to involve real educators on that committee.”

Senate Democratic leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins recommended the creation of such a panel in a letter to Skelos on March 9 outlining her conference’s budget priorities.

“The timely creation of an education redesign team comprised of all stakeholders is the best way to discuss and bring about real reforms to better all students,” Stewart-Cousins wrote in the letter.

Cuomo’s office did not immediately return a request for comment.

During his first term in office, Cuomo created two panels to develop legislative recommendations on education. Cuomo’s Education Reform Commission, created in 2012, pushed him and the Legislature to fund statewide pre-kindergarten, establish community schools, offer performance-based incentives to teachers and extend the school day or year. His Common Core Implementation Panel recommended changes that ended up in the budget last year, including eliminating standardized testing in early grades.

UPDATE: Cuomo's communications director, Melissa DeRosa, tweeted on Tuesday evening: "[Regarding] rumors about teacher evaluation—there are a number of proposals floating around—none of them have been agreed to."